Reason
by librophile
Summary: "If only I hadn't gone to reason with Drago, maybe things would be different." Hiccup makes a different choice, one that sets things on a new course. AU


_AN: I finally got to see the second movie recently, so I felt better about reading the fanfiction based off it. Reading through it, though, the same question kept coming up: What if Hiccup hadn't tried to talk with Drago? _

_One possible outcome was that Stoick might still be alive if he hadn't acted, and that Hiccup blames himself for his father's death because of that. But I don't think everything would turn out perfectly. In a scenario like the one they ended up in - there would be losses. There's no avoiding that, to my point of view. Things had already gone too far on the enemy's side. And one person's actions can change more than you think - whether they did or didn't accomplish them._

_Hence, this story._

* * *

><p><strong>Reason<strong>

**_If only I hadn't gone to reason with Drago..._**

Hiccup shifted in the saddle, prepared to swoop down and defy the tyrant who was destroying the dragons' home, when he hesitated. His father had told him Drago was without reason, without mercy – that he had no desire for peace. His mother had been almost amused; "You can't _reason_ with Drago," she had chuckled, treating his desire as one would the childish whim that jumping off the roof meant you could fly.

Maybe they were right.

Hiccup whirled his dragon around and headed for his parents, who were hiding behind a block of ice to avoid the Black Alpha's notice.

**_...Maybe things would be different._**

He rested a hand on his dragon's neck. Toothless recognized his cue and dived, impacting the beast's head with his plasma bolt. The immense dragon reared back with a roar of anger, small, dark eyes narrowed in fury. Hiccup noticed with a sick feeling in his chest that the beast was scarred, and that two chains were permanently attached to its tusks.

Drago's eyes narrowed. "The Dragon Master," he hissed. He swung his staff in the air, howling the uncontrolled vengeful call he used to control his dragons. The beast whirled, and he shouted, pointing at Hiccup and Toothless, "Control them!" Then, swinging his arm about, he shouted, "All of them!"

**_My Dad would still be alive..._**

Toothless shuddered in flight, and Hiccup looked at him in alarm. "Toothless?" His dragon's ears were twitching, and beyond Hiccup's sight Toothless's pupils narrowed slightly.

"Jump, son!" Stoick bellowed.

Hiccup didn't know what was wrong with his dragon, but did know that if his father was telling him to use the 'contraption' in his suit that something was drastically out of place.

"_Now, Hiccup!_"

Hiccup shifted Toothless's tail to stationary and leaped off.

**_I would have my family together for the first time I can remember_**...

It was only once he was in flight that he realized what was happening. All the dragons in the area were flying toward the Alpha, including his own. "Toothless!" he cried out, but his friend's ears didn't even twitch. The locked tail kept the dragon in flight away from his friend.

Then a scream caught Hiccup's attention, and he whirled in sheer horror to see Stormfly flip to follow, throwing her riders. "Astrid!" he cried out, and dove toward her and the young Dragon Trapper, praying he would make it in time.

His father, leaping from the heights above to grab one or both, made it in time to grab one of them.

Hiccup, releasing his wings in one last desperate attempt, didn't.

**_I could ask them what I should do with my future..._**

Awakening hours later to his mother's tender ministrations and Ruffnut's sobs, Hiccup learned that he had missed his intended by mere inches before crashing himself, breaking an arm in the process. Fishlegs and Snotlout sat with Gobber nearby, eyes on the floor in apparent shock. Stoick wrapped his arms around his heir with tears in his eyes. "Oh, son. We thought we'd lost you."

**_...And who I am supposed to be._**

The flight to Berk had an undertone of desperation, fear, and determination. Stoick had somehow convinced two of the infant dragons to carry him, holding on to them through sheer force of will with one under each arm. Compared to Eret, a novice, Stoick looked as if he had been handling undersized wild dragons for his entire life.

**_We could have fought together..._**

Getting Toothless back from the control of Drago – who was now riding him – had been a feat Hiccup had doubted he could accomplish, but tried anyway. Toothless and Hiccup together defeated the huge beast and sent Drago and his mount down into the depths of the sea. Hiccup didn't know whether his enemy had survived or not, but was too grieved to give it thought.

**_We could rebuild Berk as father, mother, and son._**

Hiccup led the funeral services, with his father's support. Two ships were set alight – one with flowers and a familiar ax, and the other blown up in one go by a grieving Zippleback.

**_If only I hadn't acted... _**

Ruffnut was never quite herself again. She flew Barf and Belch alone, never showing a preference for either head, and no-one ever had cause to say 'It's the twins' when something exploded. Hardly anything did now that there was only one of them left. Eret rode Stormfly, the orphaned mount whom he had already bonded with.

Hiccup eventually married a girl five years his junior, one that he had befriended years earlier during an attack from Alvin the Treacherous, but he never completely recovered from the loss of his first love. Fishlegs became his second-in-command at the Dragon Academy, and Snotlout never spoke of the time their little band had decreased by a third.

After several years, Stoick and Valka unexpectedly presented Hiccup with a sister, one with surprisingly light hair for the child of a red-headed chief and his dark-haired wife.

**_Everything might have turned out all right_**.

They named her Astrid.


End file.
